This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on August 14, 2023 - August 20, 2023
There is a reason that Petaling Jaya has a large residential area called Old Town, better known as PJ Old Town. The folks there are not easily taken in by any new development.
The land in the area has been zoned as suitable for low-density residential development. While the zoning is good for residents, it has not gone down well with everyone, particularly Magna Prima Bhd.
The medium-sized developer, whose biggest asset is the former Lai Ming School in Kuala Lumpur city centre, has 6.9 acres of land in the vicinity of PJ Old Town. It has proposed to dispose of the land, which it last revalued in 2009 for RM65 million, close to its book value.
Magna Prima is disposing of the real estate because it believes it cannot fully maximise the development potential of the land, which is now categorised as low-density residential development.
Magna Prima had applied to the city council several times to change the status to commercial development, but it was unsuccessful.
The company stated that it had undertaken an exercise to sell the 6.9-acre parcel, which is located on Jalan Gasing, by way of an open tender through public advertisements in March this year but received no response — hence the disposal to Glomics Holding Sdn Bhd.
Magna Prima’s disposal of the land is also to reduce its debts of close to RM80 million. The PJ land has a debt of RM15 million, which falls due by Oct 31.
While it is unfortunate that Magna Prima is forced to sell the land because of its inability to convert the status, the council would earn brownie points from PJ Old Town residents for not yielding to the demands of the developer.
Nevertheless, all is not lost for Magna Prima. It still has the 2.6 acres right smack in the city centre, which it could start developing with the proceeds from the sale of the PJ land.
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